Letters: Guantanamo Bay must be closed

It is illegal and unconstitutional. The detainees are held with no trial by jury as demanded by the U.S. Constitution. Article III Section 2. One detainee was tried and convicted by jury trial in 2010 and sentenced to 20 years to life. 34 of the remaining 91 detainees have been cleared for release.

The detainees are held in violation of several parts of the Geneva Convention regarding prisoners of war. Articles 3, 13, 17, and 109.

Federal prisons can hold any detainees who can be convicted. Currently 355 inmates are in custody on terror-related convictions.

It is expensive. The continuing detention costs $397 million per year, $3 million per detainee. Federal prisons cost $78,000 per detainee.

The risk of releasing the detainees is low. Of detainees who have been released, 647 so far, only 16% have returned to the battlefield and another 16% may have returned to the battlefield. Compare this to 626,000 prisoners released annually from Federal and State penitentiaries. State releases have a rearrest rate of 74% within 5 years of release. Of course these people were convicted not just accused. Crime rates are falling despite the high rearrest rates.

The propaganda damage to the United States exceeds the risk of release. Al Quaeda and ISIS use the continuing existence of GITMO in recruiting materials.

Many U.S. military officers and CIA directors recommend closing Guantanamo for moral, military and legal reasons.

Why are we afraid of 91 men? Because they are radicals? Because they are Islamists? Because they are terrorists? Radical Islamic terrorists are not supermen. They do not have magical abilities. They do not threaten the existence or stability of the United States.

The continuing detention in legal limbo is a greater threat to national security and the rule of law in the United States than 1,000 Radical Islamic terrorists all of whom could be accommodated in federal prisons.